Level 0 ETF basics · Part 9/14

MSCI World criticism: how big is the US concentration?

The MSCI World is regarded as the classic one-ETF portfolio and is often criticized for its heavy US weighting and the dominance of a few mega-caps. The current figures:

Bars of country weights in the MSCI World: the US at about 72 percent, then Japan, the UK, Canada, France, Switzerland and Germany
Country weights from the holdings list of an MSCI World ETF (iShares Core MSCI World, as of September 15, 2026): US 72.3 %, Japan 5.9 %, UK 3.5 %, Canada 3.4 %, France 2.3 %, Switzerland 2.1 %, Germany 2.1 %, all other countries combined 8.2 %.
Live data

What's inside – MSCI World

Based on: Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF 1d · as of 2026-09-17 · 1251 holdings · index page MSCI World

What's inside – MSCI World
#StockWeight
1NVIDIA Corporation NVDA5.45 %
2Apple Inc. AAPL5.41 %
3Microsoft Corporation MSFT3.83 %
4Amazon.com Inc. AMZN2.64 %
5Alphabet Inc. Class A GOOGL2.23 %
6Alphabet Inc. Class C GOOG1.76 %
7Broadcom Inc. AVGO1.70 %
8Meta Platforms Inc Class A META1.64 %
9Micron Technology Inc. MU1.16 %
10Tesla Inc. TSLA1.14 %

Sectors

IT30.0 %
Finanzwesen16.4 %
Industrie10.9 %
Gesundheitsversorgung9.2 %
Zyklische Konsumgüter8.4 %
Kommunikation8.3 %

The country and sector bars come from the holdings data of the index funds. The US share and the weight of the largest tech names are the points the criticism refers to.

Which fund types change the weighting

  • Other regions or factors: small-cap or value funds, for example, lower the weight of the largest companies in an overall portfolio.
  • Overlap between two funds is shown in the ETF comparison ; a second fund holding the same names changes little.
  • Concentration cuts both ways: the high US weight reflects the market value of US companies and has carried much of the index return in recent years. Whether that continues is open. Our own analysis is in Is the MSCI World too American? .

Information only, not investment advice.